“Will she be safe?”

“You do not wish to sacrifice what that answer would buy me.”

“Will you keep our realm safe?”

“I have enjoyed our visit, Sea King. Do not end it by offending me.”

“Your power has not been called on for centuries and you allude to being stuck in this place, unable to leave,” Aramus pointed out.

“I will admit, in these troubled times, I do have concerns my power is a bit rusty.”

And Aramus used more patience.

“The Beast—”

“Ignore the lore. It is faulty, magnified over the years in the mouths of tellers that are liars. His power is not manifest, it is insidious. But it is perilous. In other words, he is not what you think. Even those who think they can control him do not know all he is and all he’s capable of. And he has allies. Ones you would not ever expect.”

“What is he?”

“You have much to contend with before you concern yourself with him.”

Aramus was quickly coming to the end of his supply of patience.

“You are not telling me anything I do not already know.”

“And this, Sea King, your father could not know for he never deigned to attend me. You come with nothing and you leave with what I want to give you, no more.”

“I would protect my queen and I would protect my people.”

“Do you know the most destructive force on earth?”

“Tell me.”

There was a pause.

And then, “Water.”

Aramus made no response.

“Fire, wind, nothing decays, nothing rots, nothing sweeps away all in its path, like water. A fire can burn the trees covering a range of mountains, but not touch the stone. However, over time, the rains will beat even stone back into the earth.”

Aramus brought matters in hand.

“I come here worried for my wife and my realm and those of all of Triton and I leave here with more reason to worry.”

And reason to be infuriated with his queen that she had kept something so vital from him for absolutely no reason.

“And is this not something crucial I give to you, Sea King?”

It was vastly irritating, but he was not wrong about that.

“The payment too dear, I will not come again,” he warned. “And you have given me nothing to earn due.”

“I have given you everything you need to know.”

Aramus did not see it that way.

Until he thought…

Water.

“She commands the seas,” he whispered.

“She could sweep Sky Bay into the ocean on a whim,” the voice replied. “You add to her the air, the fire, the earth…” the voice trailed away.

The air, Elena.

The fire, that had to be Silence.

The earth, undoubtedly Farah.

His heart grew light.

“We prevail,” he stated.

“Evil has its own brand of magic and not one of you has faced true evil.”

Aramus’s heart no longer felt light.

“In all your might, all your magic, there is only one weapon you can call on, Sea King. You think you know it. You think you have it in hand. You think you can harness it. And that, my Head, if you fall into that trap, will be your downfall.”